The helmet is intended to protect the head in the event of impact. However, most bicycle helmets are not designed to prevent accidents that may result in head impacts or other bodily harm. According to the Boston Cyclist Safety Report 2013 published in May 2013 and by the City of Boston, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, 32% of bicycle accidents are due to motorists not seeing the cyclists; this includes 18% of bicycle accidents that result from “dooring”, i.e. when a vehicle door is extended into cyclists (p. 17 of Boston Cyclist Safety Report 2013). Another 38% of bicycle accidents result from improper cyclist adherence to traffic rules such as running stop signals and riding into oncoming traffic (p. 17 of Boston Cyclist Safety Report 2013). Taken together, 70% of bicycle accidents are due to a combination of poor cyclist visibility and improper adherence to road rules. These accidents could be prevented if cyclists were more visible on the road and shared a common system to communicate their actions on the road.
Furthermore, group cycling may have more safety issues as each member of the group may react to actions by other members in addition to road conditions. For example, a member may speed up in order not to be left behind at intersections or ride harder in the wind in order to stay out of the way of vehicles in the middle of the lane. Therefore, it would be desirable to allow each member to be identified and to communicate real-time or just-in-time information with each other such that the group as a whole can ride smoothly and safely on the road. With bicycle ridership expected to increase significantly in the near term, particularly in urban environments with more traffic, it is important that cyclists are equipped with the proper gear to help prevent accidents proactively.
The conventional bicycle helmet is limited to reactively minimizing impact to the head. The conventional bike helmets are designed with an inner liner typically consisting of expanded polystyrene foam and a plastic outer shell that is adhered to the inner lining with glue and/or tape. This conventional design minimizes head trauma in the event of an impact, but it does not help cyclists avoid impact by being more visible on the road, especially in darkening or dark environments when most accidents occur. (From p. 14 of the Boston Cyclist Safety Report 2013, most accidents occur around 5 pm.)
Many cyclists attempt to address this problem by attaching lights or reflectors to their bicycles, helmets or clothing. These solutions are insufficient as most lights and reflectors are too small to be seen or are not bright enough to be seen from a safe following distance. Lamps or reflectors positioned on certain parts of the bicycle such as the wheel or underneath the seat are not visible to motorists on the road from certain angles or following distances. Furthermore, the placement of the lamps and reflectors is unique from cyclist to cyclist. The lack of a standardized, common lighting system can result in motorists, other cyclists and pedestrians not adequately seeing cyclists.
An integrated solution is therefore needed to provide both passive impact protection and also active protection for signaling to cyclists.
Furthermore, helmets have thus far not been well utilized as a platform for additional technology enhancements. As helmets are devices that are often worn in various circumstances, there is an opportunity to use helmets to solve more problems beyond just providing protection for the head.
Multiple ideas have existed to augment helmets with technologies. However, thus far, few have been brought to the market. One reason is that it is a non-trivial issue to be able to integrate electronics into a helmet while maintaining integrity of the helmet that enables it to meet its primary objective, i.e. providing protection to that person's head. For example, bicycle helmets, depending on where one intends to sell them, must pass various standards such as EN1078 and the CPSC 16 C.F.R part 1203. The biggest components of these safety standards are the impact tests.
To incorporate technologies onto a helmet, space must be made to accommodate the electronics. In order to preserve a beautiful aesthetic design of the exterior of the helmet and the helmet in general, the electronics must be “hidden” inside the helmet. However, doing so effectively means removing protective material from the helmet, decreasing its ability to pass the impact tests required of the EN1078 and the CPSC 16 C.F.R part 1203.
There is a need in the art to have a smart helmet and a mechanical design enabled one to resolve the above-mentioned engineering challenge, allowing one to create a helmet that (1) incorporates electronics onto the helmet, (2) effectively hides the electronics from the user, and (3) still passes prevailing safety standards for bicycle helmets. Although the need to have the smart helmet and the mechanical design is evolved from analyzing the need for protecting bicycle riders, the smart helmet and the mechanical design are also useful for protecting riders of other vehicles such as motorcycles.